Display system having improved multiple modes for displaying image data from multiple input source formats

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods are herein given to effect a multiple mode display system that may accept multiple input image data formats and output several possible image data format. In a first embodiment, an image processing system comprises: an input that receives a plurality of source image data, said plurality of source image data further comprising a plurality of source image data formats; circuitry that resamples source image data from said source image data format to a plurality of target image data formats; and a display that renders target image data wherein the resolution of the display comprises approximately one half resolution of the largest of said plurality of target image data formats.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is related to commonly owned (and filed on evendate) United States Patent Applications: (1) U.S. patent applicationPublication No. 2005/0088385 (“the 385 application”), entitled “SYSTEMAND METHOD FOR PERFORMING IMAGE RECONSTRUCTION AND SUBPIXEL RENDERING TOEFFECT SCALING FOR MULTI-MODE DISPLAY”, which is hereby incorporatedherein by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

In commonly owned United States Patent Applications: (1) U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2002/0015110 (“the '110 application),entitled “ARRANGEMENT OF COLOR PIXELS FOR FULL COLOR IMAGING DEVICESWITH SIMPLIFIED ADDRESSING,” filed Jul. 25, 2001; (2) U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2003/0128225 (“the '225 application),entitled “IMPROVEMENTS TO COLOR FLAT PANEL DISPLAY SUB-PIXELARRANGEMENTS AND LAYOUTS FOR SUB-PIXEL RENDERING WITH INCREASEDMODULATION TRANSFER FUNCTION RESPONSE,” filed Oct. 22, 2002: (3) U.S.Patent Application Publication No. 2003/0128179 (“the '179 application),entitled “IMPROVEMENTS TO COLOR FLAT PANEL DISPLAY SUB-PIXELARRANGEMENTS AND LAYOUTS FOR SUB-PIXEL RENDERING WITH SPLIT BLUESUB-PIXELS, “filed Oct. 22, 2002; (4) U.S. Patent ApplicationPublication No. 2004/0051724 (“the '724 application), entitled “IMPROVEDFOUR COLOR ARRANGEMENTS AND EMITTERS FOR SUB-PIXEL RENDERING” filed Sep.13, 2002; (5) U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2003/0117423 (“the'423 application), entitled “IMPROVEMENTS TO COLOR FLAT PANEL DISPLAYSUB-PIXEL ARRANGEMENTS AND LAYOUTS WITH REDUCED BLUE LUMINANCE WELLVISIBILITY,” filed Oct. 22, 2002; (6) U.S. Patent Publication No.2003/0090581 (“the '581 application), entitled “COLOR DISPLAY HAVINGHORIZONTAL SUB-PIXEL ARRANGEMENTS AND LAYOUTS,” filed Oct. 22, 2002; (7)U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0080479 (“the '479application), entitled “IMPROVED SUB-PIXEL ARRANGEMENTS FOR STRIPEDDISPLAYS AND METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR SUB-PIXEL RENDERING SAME,” filedJan. 16, 2003, each of which is herein incorporated by reference in itsentirety, novel sub-pixel arrangements are therein disclosed forimproving the cost/performance curves for image display devices.

For certain subpixel repeating groups having an even number of subpixelsin a horizontal direction, the following systems and techniques toaffect proper dot inversion schemes are disclosed and are hereinincorporated by reference in their entirety: (1) U.S. Patent ApplicationPublication No. 2004/0246280 (“the '280 application), entitled “IMAGEDEGRADATION CORRECTION IN NOVEL LIQUID CRYSTAL DISPLAYS”; (2) U.S.Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0246213 (“the '213 application),entitled “DISPLAY PANEL HAVING CROSSOVER CONNECTIONS EFFECTING DOTINVERSION“; (3) U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0246381“the '381 application), entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD OF PERFORMING DOTINVERSION WITH STANDARD DRIVERS AND BACKPLANE ON NOVEL DISPLAY PANELLAYOUTS”; (4) U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0246278 (“the'278 application), entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR COMPENSATING FORVISUAL EFFECTS UPON PANELS HAVING FIXED PATTERN NOISE WITH REDUCEDQUANTIZATION ERROR”; (5) U.S. Patent Application Publication No.2004/0246279 (“the '279 application), entitled “DOT INVERSION ON NOVELDISPLAY PANEL LAYOUTS WITH EXTRA DRIVERS”; (6) U.S. Patent ApplicationPublication No. 2004/0246404 (“the '404 application), entitled “LIQUIDCRYSTAL DISPLAY BACKPLANE LAYOUTS AND ADDRESSING FOR NON-STANDARDSUBPIXEL ARRANGEMENTS”; and (7) U.S. Patent Application Publication No.2005/0083277 (“the '277 application), entitled “IMAGE DEGRADATIONCORRECTION IN NOVEL LIQUID CRYSTAL DISPLAYS WITH SPLIT BLUE SUBPIXELS”.

These improvements are particularly pronounced when coupled withsub-pixel rendering (SPR) systems and methods further disclosed in thoseapplications and in commonly owned United States Patent Applications:(1) U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2003/0034992 (“the '992application), entitled “CONVERSION OF A SUB-PIXEL FORMAT DATA TO ANOTHERSUB-PIXEL DATA FORMAT,” filed Jan. 16, 2002; (2) U.S. Patent ApplicationPublication No. 2003/0103058 (“the '058 application), entitled “METHODSAND SYSTEMS FOR SUB-PIXEL RENDERING WITH GAMMA ADJUSTMENT,” filed May17, 2002; (3) U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2003/0085906 (“the'906 application , entitled “METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR SUB-PIXEL RENDERINGWITH ADAPTIVE FILTERING,” filed Aug. 8, 2002; (4) U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2004/0196302 (“the '302 application),entitled “SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR TEMPORAL SUB-PIXEL RENDERING OF IMAGEDATA” filed Mar. 4, 2003; (5) U.S. Patent Application Publication No.2004/0174380 (“the '380 application), entitled “SYSTEMS AND METHODS FORMOTION ADAPTIVE FILTERING,” filed Mar. 4, 2003; (6) U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2004/0174375 (“the '375 application,entitled “SUB-PIXEL RENDERING SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR IMPROVED DISPLAYVIEWING ANGLES” filed Mar. 4, 2003; (7) U.S. Patent ApplicationPublication No. 2004/0196297 (“the '297 application), entitled “IMAGEDATA SET WITH EMBEDDED PRE-SUBPIXEL RENDERED IMAGE” filed Apr. 7, 2003,which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

Improvements in gamut conversion and mapping are disclosed in commonlyowned and co-pending U.S. Patent Applications: (1) U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2005/0083345 (“the '345 application),entitled “HUE ANGLE CALCULATION SYSTEM AND METHODS”, filed Oct. 21,2003; (2) U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2005/0083341 (“the'341 application), entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONVERTING FROMSOURCE COLOR SPACE TO RGBW TARGET COLOR SPACE”, tiled Oct. 21, 2003; (3)U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2005/0083352 (“the '352application)), entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONVERTING FROM ASOURCE COLOR SPACE TO A TARGET COLOR SPACE”, filed Oct. 21, 2003; and(4) U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2005/0083344 (“the '344application), entitled “GAMUT CONVERSION SYSTEM AND METHODS”, filed Oct.21, 2003, which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in theirentirety. All patent applications mentioned in this specification arehereby incorporated by reference.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in, and constitute apart of this specification illustrate exemplary implementations andembodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serveto explain principles of the invention.

FIG. 1 shows a conventional signal processing pathway for a standarddisplay/monitor/television unit displaying a television signal thereon.

FIG. 2 depicts one embodiment of the present invention wherein astandard television signal is processed and shown on adisplay/monitor/television that shows a reduction in bandwidth withinthe unit.

FIG. 3 shows one embodiment of a display/monitor/television architecturebuilt in accordance with the principles of the present invention.

FIG. 4 depicts one possible embodiment of an architecture implementing amulti-mode operation on a display made in accordance with the principlesof the present invention.

FIG. 5 shows a possible video sync and data timing signals to helpeffect a proper centering for letter box viewing.

FIG. 6 shows one embodiment of a EDID circuit to help enable multi-modeoperation of a display system as controlled by a personal computer orthe like.

FIGS. 7 and 8 show two alternate embodiments of architectures to effectmulti-mode operation of a display system made in accordance with theprinciples of the present invention.

FIG. 9 shows one embodiment of a pixel doubler made in accordance withthe principles of the present invention.

FIG. 10 shows one embodiment of a line doubler made in accordance withthe principles of the present invention.

FIGS. 11 and 12 show yet another embodiment of a line doubler made inaccordance with the principles of the present invention.

FIGS. 13 and 14 show yet another embodiment of a line doubler made inaccordance with the principles of the present invention.

FIGS. 15 and 16 show a high level block diagram of an architecture thatmay support interpolation as well as data duplication and the effects ofits output respectively.

FIGS. 17 and 18 show two embodiments of similar architectures, one thatsupports interpolation exclusively and another that supportsinterpolation and duplication modes.

FIGS. 19 and 20 show another embodiment of a interpolation/duplicationblock and one possible signal diagram respectively.

FIGS. 21 and 22 show yet another embodiment of ainterpolation/duplication block and one possible signal diagramrespectively.

FIGS. 23 and 24 show one embodiment of a two-channel input pixelinterpolation block and a possible signal diagram respectively.

FIGS. 25, 26 and 27 show one embodiment of a lineinterpolation/duplication block and timing diagrams for itsinterpolation mode and its duplication mode respectively.

FIGS. 28 and 29 show two embodiments of a two-channel inputinterpolation block, one that performs same color sharpening subpixelrendering and one that performs cross-color sharpening respectively.

FIGS. 30 and 31 show one embodiment of a two-channel input interpolationblock and a possible timing diagram respectively.

FIGS. 32 and 33 show yet another embodiment of a two-channel inputinterpolation block and a possible timing diagram respectively.

FIG. 34 shows an alternative embodiment to the system of FIG. 4.

FIG. 35 shows an alternative embodiment to the system of FIG. 18.

FIG. 36 shows an alternative embodiment to the system of FIG. 25.

FIG. 37 shows one possible timing diagram for the system of FIG. 36.

FIG. 38 shows an alternative embodiment to the system of FIGS. 25 and36.

FIGS. 39 and 40 show possible timing diagrams for interpolation mode andduplication mode for FIG. 38.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Reference will now be made in detail to implementations and embodiments,examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Whereverpossible, the same reference numbers will be used throughout thedrawings to refer to the same or like parts.

Currently, there are a number of television broadcast standards inexistence and several companies have attempted to create display systemsthat are capable of receiving a number of such broadcasts and renderingthem onto a common display.

FIG. 1 is typical of some of the image processing pathways through thesemulti-mode displays. Pathway 100 starts by inputting one of any numberof standard television signals at 102—possibly in need of de-interlacingpicture processing at 103. As one example, the signal could be NTSC in640×480 RGB format—i.e. having 640×3×480 resolution. An image processingblock 104 accepts this data and upsamples the data to 1280×3×960 datafor rendering on, for example, an RGB striped 1280×3×960 display. Thesignal leaving image processing block 104 is at approximately “highdefinition television” (HD) bandwidths and is input into at videoprocessing block 106, which typically incorporates frame buffers atapproximately 1280×3×960 dimensioning. Any desired auxiliary for thedisplay system—such as subpixel rendering, response time enhancement, orother image enhancement function—could be performed by the videoprocessing block. The output of video processing block 106 is again ofthe order of HD bandwidth—which is received as, for example, 1280×960input into the aforementioned display.

In accordance with the principles of the present invention, however,FIG. 2 shows one embodiment of a different image processing pathway thatcan occur to give similar image rendering performance—but with reducedmemory and bandwidth requirements. Pathway 200 could accept one of anynumber of standard television signals at 202 (e.g. the same NTSC signalas in FIG. 1). This signal is of the order of NTSC bandwidth and isinput into an optional de-interlacing picture processing block 204 (ifde-interlacing is required of the signal). The output of this block isagain of the order of NTSC bandwidth and is subsequently input into aninterpolation/subpixel rendering (SPR) block 206.

As will be further discussed below and as is further detailed in theco-pending related applications herein incorporated by reference, theinterpolation/SPR block 206 does not need multiple frame buffers at1280×3×960 dimensioning. Additionally, the signal that is output to thedisplay 208 is on the order of one half of the bandwidth associated withHD—even though the rendered image is of HD quality. This is possible, inpart, because display 208 employs one of a number of novel subpixellayouts disclosed in many of the commonly assigned applicationsincorporated by reference above.

FIG. 3 shows one possible embodiment of an architecture as made inaccordance with the principles of the present invention. Display system300 accepts one of a plurality of analog and/or digital signals formulti-mode processing—for example, NTSC, VGA or SXGA RGB data, HDTV, andother formats. The signal is fed into the interpolation and/or SPR block302 where the input data may be appropriately scaled and subpixelrendered for display. In this example, the output of block 302 may beinput into a timing controller 304—however, it should be appreciatedthat, in other embodiments, the interpolation and SPR may beincorporated into the timing controller itself, may be built into thepanel (particularly using LTPS or other like processing technologies),or may reside elsewhere in the display system (e.g. within a graphicscontroller). The scope of the present invention should not beparticularly limited to the placement of the interpolation and/orsubpixel rendering within the system.

In this particular embodiment, the data and control signals are outputfrom timing controller 304 to column drivers 306 and row drivers 308.Data is then sent to the appropriate subpixels on display panel 310. Asshown here, panel 310 is formed by a substantially repeating subpixelgrouping 312, which is comprised—as seen in an expanded view—of a 2×3subpixel unit wherein vertical striped subpixel 314 depicts the colorred, horizontal striped subpixel 316 depicts the color blue, and thediagonally striped subpixel 318 depict the color green. It should beappreciated that the subpixels in repeating group 312 are not drawn toscale with respect to the display system; but are drawn larger for easeof viewing. One possible dimensioning for display 310 is 1920 subpixelsin a horizontal line (640 red, 640 green and 640 blue subpixels) and 960rows of subpixels. Such a display would have the requisite number ofsubpixels to display VGA, 1280×720, and 1280×960 input signals thereon.

Table 1 below is a summary of the possible display systems comprisingpanels having subpixel resolutions—e.g. 640×3×960 would indicate a panelhaving 640 red, 640 green and 640 blue subpixels in a row, comprising960 such rows. Such a panel used in the present invention would have aneffective maximum resolution of 1280×960—wherein each red and greensubpixel could effectively be the center of luminance for an RGB pixelvalue. The last column indicates some of the modes that such a displaysystem of the present invention could then support. For example, theabove described panel and system could support VGA, SVGA, NTSC, PAL and720p video formats.

TABLE 1 Effective max Subpixel resolution resolution Supported modes 640 × 3 × 960 (4:3) 1280 × 960 VGA (1:2), SVGA, NTSC, PAL, 720p (1:1) 640 × 3 × 1024 (5:4) 1280 × 1024 VGA, SVGA, XGA, SXGA (1:1), NTSC, PAL,720p  960 × 3 × 1080 (16:9) 1920 × 1080 WVGA, WXGA, 720p, 1080i (1:1) 852 × 3 × 960 (16:9) 1704 × 960 WVGA (1:2), WXGA 1280 × 3 × 1440 (16:9)2560 × 1440 WXGA (1:2), 720p, 1080i Note: Possible aspect ratio includedin column 1, and possible scaling ratio in column 3

As further disclosed in the related patent application incorporatedherein, displaying standard 640×480 television signal onto a panel asdiscussed herein—i.e. one that comprises 640×3×960 physical subpixels;but has greater image quality with subpixel rendering—may take advantageof interpolation followed by cross-color sharpened subpixel rendering toeffectively scale the image to 1280×960 logical pixels. Thisreconstructs the image with reduced moiré and aliasing artifacts sincethe interpolation serves as a low-pass reconstruction filter for theluminance signal while the sharpened subpixel rendering filter serves toremove any spatial frequencies that may cause chromatic aliasing, thuspreserving the color balance and image constrast.

Also, shown in FIG. 3, other subpixel repeating groups 320, 322, 323,324, 325 and 326 are also possible for purposes of the presentinvention. These subpixel repeating groups and algorithms to drive themare further disclosed in the above applications incorporated byreference. The subpixel repeating group 320 depicts use of at least afourth color—e.g. white, cyan, blue-grey, magenta or the like—whichcould expand the color gamut and/or brightness of the display over andabove traditional 3 color primary systems. The other subpixel repeatinggroups could similarly comprise at least a fourth color as well. As withsome of these subpixel repeating groups, the bandwidth and memoryrequirements are in a range that is less than what traditional RGBstripe systems require, and down to approximately one half of HDbandwidth. One of the reasons is the subpixel rendering as disclosed inthe '612 application, the '355 application, and the '843 applicationboosts the effective resolution of the panels with these novel layoutsin both horizontal and vertical axes. Thus, the subpixels in questionmay be resized to (for example) a 2:3 aspect ratio, as opposed to thestandard 1:3 aspect ratio found in traditional RGB stripe displays. Thisresizing creates a display panel of comparable image display quality;but with approximately one half the number of subpixels in a horizontaldirection. This reduces the bandwidth and memory requirementsappropriately.

FIG. 4 shows one possible embodiment of a present interpolation/SPRblock 302. Block 302 is depicted here as one that may optionally supporta multi-mode (i.e. accepts multiple video input formats and displays oneor more output video formats) operation. It will be appreciated that,although FIG. 4 shows particular resolution specification numbers andother implementation details, these details are meant for illustrativepurposes only and the present invention is not to be limited toparticular numbers or formats specified in the Figures.

Input signal 402 arrives at interpolation/duplication block 404 and aninput resolution detector 406. As shown for illustration purposes,signal 402 could be 640×480 or 1280×960. Two pathways (Path A and B) areshown as one embodiment of multi-mode support. If the detector 406detects the signal as a 1280×960 signal, then theinterpolation/duplication block 404 is bypassed—e.g. by either disablingthe block or, as shown, using a MUX 408 to select an alternate data path(e.g. Path B) for input into the SPR block 410.

Interpolation/duplication block 404 could be implemented, as oneembodiment, to either use interpolation (e.g. linear, bi-linear, cubic,bi-cubic and the like) or duplication (i.e. replicate horizontal pixeldata to expand from 640 to 1280 pixel values and replicate line data toexpand from 480 to 960 line values) to achieve appropriate scaling. Itwill be appreciated that other embodiments could employ either onlyinterpolation or only duplication as opposed to having a choice amongthe two modes. In this embodiment, a doubling (interpolation orduplication) mode signal 412 could be supplied to block 404 and to a MUX414 to select the appropriate filter kernel to the SPR block 410.

Three such filters are shown 416, 418, 420 for illustrative purposes.Filter 416 “unity” filter—which could be used with VGA input and in aduplication mode. Such sharpening filter could be implemented with thefollowing coefficients for all colors (R, G and B):

$\begin{matrix}0 & 0 & 0 \\0 & 255 & 0 \\0 & 0 & 0\end{matrix} \times {1/255.}$

Filter 418 could be a “sharpening” filter, designed to give improvedimage quality for video data; and could possibly be used for VGA inputwith an interpolation mode. One such sharpening filter might beimplemented (for R and G colors) as:

$\begin{matrix}{- 16} & 32 & {- 16} \\32 & 192 & 32 \\{- 16} & 32 & {- 16}\end{matrix} \times {1/255.}$

Filter 420 could be a “diamond” filter, designed to give improved imagequality for text image data and could possibly be used for SXGA input.One such diamond filter might be implemented (for R and G colors) as:

$\begin{matrix}0 & 32 & 0 \\32 & 128 & 32 \\0 & 32 & 0\end{matrix} \times {1/255.}$

The blue color for the last two filters could be implemented as:

$\begin{matrix}0 & 0 & 0 \\0 & 128 & 128 \\0 & 0 & 0\end{matrix} \times {1/255.}$

A fourth filter 421 is shown to depict that N filters could be possiblyemployed by the subpixel rendering block. Such other filters mightimplement area resampling or a windowed sync function. As mentioned, thechoice of which filter to apply could be determined by select signalsapplied to a MUX 414 with the select signals being a duplication (orinterpolation) mode select signal and an input resolution detectionsignal. The duplication or interpolation mode select signal could besupplied by the user of the display system (e.g. depending upon whetherthe user wants to display primarily video or text images) or the selectsignal could be supplied by applications that are accessing the displaysystem and are capable of automatically deciding which mode and/orfilter to apply depending upon the state of the application.

Once subpixel rendering has occurred, the video output data can besupplied upon a Video Out line 422 and the sync signals could also beoptionally sent to an optional centering sync block 424. Centering syncblock 424 could supply an output sync signal 428 depending upon the data(e.g. 640×480 or 1280×960) format being output. If the output data is1280×960, then output display image does not need to be centered—e.g. asin a letter box format. If the input is 1280×720, it might be desirableto pad the scaled signal to be centered by appropriate introduction ofblack lines before and after the 720 active lines of data.

FIG. 34 is an alternative embodiment for the system of FIG. 4. In FIG.34, the Input Resolution Detector sets a “bypass” signal and supplied tothe Interpolation/Duplication block so that input signals may be passedthrough to the SPR block directly—in either serial (depending uponwhether buffers are employed in SPR block) or via three data lines. FIG.35 shows another embodiment of the present system which employs thebypass signal at a Mux 3502 and at Line Select to effect one possiblebypass mode. FIG. 36 shows yet another embodiment in which bypass modeis effected to supply data on lines 3602, 3604 and 3606 for such bypassmode of operation. FIG. 37 is one possible timing diagram for the bypassmode of FIG. 36.

FIG. 38 is one embodiment of the present system that may be used in theInterpolation/Duplication block of FIG. 4. A single Line Out may supplydata to the SPR block that may, in turn, buffer the data. FIGS. 39 and40 show possible timing diagrams for the Interpolation Mode andDuplication Mode respectively for the system of FIG. 38.

FIG. 5 depicts the effect of applying the appropriate black line paddingto a 640×480 scaled output signal for display—e.g. having 1280×1024subpixels and displaying scaled VGA 1280×960 output data. As may beseen, the centering sync signal could be used to take a video streambordered by a back porch (BP) delay and a front porch (FP) delay plus 64lines to create a video stream that has the appropriate BP and FP delaysthat have a more equal distribution of padded black lines to center theimage data on the display.

FIG. 6 depicts another optional aspect of the present invention. EDIDselection circuit 600 could be implemented to inform another system—e.g.a personal computer (PC) or the like—regarding the display resolutioncapabilities of the display system. Typically in a display system, EDIDcomprises a plurality of ROM storage (e.g. 606 and 608 and possibleother ROMS that are not shown) that informs a PC or other suitablesystem what the display capabilities are of the display via an I2Ccommunications channel 610. In a multi-mode display system, however, itmay be important for the user or application accessing the displaysystem to inform the PC or the like what the capabilities are and eithercould select (602) which signal to send to MUX 604. Once the proper EDIDdata is selected (e.g. as shown VGA or SXGA or any other ROM to enableother modes as necessary), such data would be supplied to the PC via agraphics card or the like.

Other embodiments of the present system are shown in FIGS. 7 and 8. FIG.7 shows a system 700 that accepts a plurality of input signals at MUX702 and depending upon what resolution detector 704 detects, the inputdata is sent to a plurality of paths (only two shown here as 480 p or720 p data—of course, other data and their paths are possible). Eachpath may be sent into an SPR block (shown here as a 1:2 SPR and 1:1 SPR714, 716 respectively—of course, other SPR blocks that implementdifferent scaling modes are possible). Depending upon the resolution ofthe input data set, the system could add lines (708) or double thenumber of lines (710), and possibly provide a centering block (712) forone or more resolution modes. The results of the SPR blocks may bemultiplexed (718) according to which data is to be rendered upon thedisplay 722. Likewise, the line signals may be multiplexed (720)according to which data is to be rendered on the display. FIG. 8 is yetanother embodiment of the present system that is similar to FIG. 7. Onedifference is that a reduced number of SPR blocks are used in the systembecause one or more input data paths are interpolated (802) to provide acorrect amount of data to the SPR blocks.

Now it will be shown some embodiments suitable to perform some desiredinterpolation upon image data. FIG. 9 depicts a pixel doubler block 900that takes input data 902 and latches the input (904). Multiplies 906,adder 908 effect the cubic interpolation scheme mentioned above. Itshould be appreciated that the given coefficients allow cost effectivecomputation—for example, a divide by 1/16 is a right shift four timesand multiplying by 9 can be done with a left shift three times and anadd with the original value. On even outputs, one of the input pixels isoutput directly, on odd outputs, the interpolated value is produced—witheven and odd outputs effected by Mux 910.

FIG. 10 shows one embodiment of an odd line doubler 1000. Odd linedoubler inputs image data 1002 (as shown as a plurality of input linesof 640 pixels each—of course, other line widths are possible for otherimage data formats), and sends the pixel data to a pixel doubler (e.g.the one disclosed in FIG. 9 or the like) which doubles the width of theline. Three doubled lines are stored into line buffers 1004 (for anothercubic interpolation step) and one is buffered 1006 so that theappropriate data is present in the multipliers 1008 and adder 1010 toproduce the vertical interpolation. This interpolates between lines 2and 3. It should be noted that only the last 3 of these values need tobe saved in latches 1012—since those 3 (plus 3 values from line 2 aboveand 3 values from line 3 below are stored in 1012) are desired to dosubpixel rendering (SPR) 1014.

It should also be noted that SPR may be done with two line buffers.Combining cubic interpolation with SPR removes the requirement ofseparate line buffers. An additional line buffer is all that may beneeded to do the cubic interpolation. It should additionally be notedthat even with SPR, one more line buffer may be added to synchorize theinput and output video streams. So, while typical SPR may require atotal of 3 line buffers, the present system may make use of 4 linebuffers to effect line doubling and cubic interpolation-SPR.

FIGS. 11 and 12 shows yet another embodiment of a full line doubler 1100and 1200 respectively. FIG. 11 shows a system for generation even lines1100. Because the system outputs twice as many lines as it inputs, FIG.11 shows the line buffers 1102 being recirculated such that the oddlines are generated with no new input pixels via multipiers 1104 andadders 1106. Line 2 is output directly to the latches 1108 for SPR andtwo new interpolated lines are generated—one between Line 1 and 2 andanother between Line 2 and 3.

FIG. 12 shows a system 1200 for generating the odd lines. Pixel doubler1202 produces horizontally interpolated values which are stored in linebuffers 1204. Lines 1-4 output to multipliers 1206 and adder 1208,similar to that shown in FIG. 10. The output from adder 1208 plus thedirect output from lines 2 and 4 are shifted through latches 1210 tosupply the values desired for SPR. Line 4 could also serve as thesynchorization buffer as discussed above. Line 0 is employed for savingthe data to be used on the even lines as discussed in FIG. 11 above.

FIGS. 13 and 14 are yet another embodiment of a full line doubler. FIG.13 shows an odd line doubler 1300. Pixel doubler 1302 inputs data to aplurality of line buffers 1304. Lines 1, 2, 3 and 4 are verticallyinterpolated to produce the center line of data stored in latches 1310.The output from the adder 1308 is recirculated into a line between Line1 and 2, and called Line 1A. The output of Line 2 and Line 3 aredirectly input into latches 1310 for SPR. FIG. 14 shows the even linedoubler 1400 where the line bufferes 1402 are recirculated. Lines 1, 2,3 and 4 are input into multipliers 1404 and adder 1406 to performvertical interpolation, with the results input into the last buffer of1408 for SPR. Lines 1A and 2 are directly input into latches 1408. Itshould be noted that the line buffers in FIGS. 13 and 14 may be sharedbetween the even and odd doublers. During the odd line output, Line 1Ais filled in FIG. 13 and that line is used in the even lines in FIG. 14.It should also be noted that the use of Line 1A buffer in FIGS. 13 and14 obviate the need of the extra multiply/adder as shown in FIGS. 11.

FIGS. 15 and 16 depict yet another embodiment of an interpolation blockthat may support both interpolation and duplication schemes. In anembodiment that effects multiple modes of resolution, twoschemes—interpolation and/or duplication—may be used to effect thesemodes. For example, if the input resolution is 640×480, it is possibleto use either interpolation or duplication to output 1280×960resolution. Both interpolation and duplication have their own uniqueproperties—interpolation generally makes images smoother; whileduplication tends to keep images sharper than interpolation. It ispossible to effect interpolation and duplication in one processing blockfor a more cost effective system. FIG. 15 shows a high level blockdiagram 1500 of such a system. Video input 1502 is input intointerpolation filter 1504 which effects an interpolation scheme (such asthe one discussed above). One line of video input, however, bypasses theinterpolation block and is supplied at the input of mux 1506.

Depending upon whether interpolation or duplication is desired (via Modeselect), the output of the mux is shown in FIG. 16.

FIGS. 17 and 18 depict how to migrate from a strictly interpolationblock 1700 having a pixel interpolation unit 1702 and a lineinterpolation unit 1704 into a dual interpolation/duplication block1800. Dual mode block 1800 has similar pixel interpolation and lineinterpolation blocks as in FIG. 17; but with the addition of two Muxs1804 and 1806. These two Muxs are supplied a mode select signal thatselects either the interpolation or the duplication mode.

FIGS. 19 and 20 show one embodiment of a pixel interpolation block ofFIG. 18. As shown, video data is input into a plurality of latches andsubsequently sent to multipliers/adder to effect interpolation. Bypass1902 is used, however, to effect pixel doubling via Mux 2 upon anappropriate mode select signal. FIG. 20 shows one possible signal timingdiagram for the embodiment of FIG. 19. FIGS. 21 and 22 shows analternative embodiment of the pixel interpolation block with itsassociated timing diagram.

FIGS. 23 and 24 depict one embodiment of a two-channel input pixelinterpolation block 2300. Video Output A is a bypass mode to allow fornative input data to bypass the processing in block 2300. Video Output Bis an output selected by Mux2 depending upon a mode select signal. Itshould be noted that there are opportunities to efficiently design block2300 to remove the need of a multiplier, as seen in FIG. 23. FIG. 24shows a possible timing diagram of the block of FIG. 23.

FIGS. 25, 26 and 27 depict one embodiment of a line interpolation block,with timing diagrams for interpolation mode and duplication moderespectively. As may be seen from FIG. 25, Line Mux selects eitherinterpolated lines or duplicated lines depending upon its mode selectsignal. The timing diagrams of FIGS. 26 and 27 show the respectiveoperations of this block. The Line Select operation is as follows:during odd line, Line Out1 is Line Buffer5 output, Line Out2 is Linebuffer2 output, and Line Out3 is Line MUX output; during even line, LineOut1 is Line buffer2 output, Line Out2 is Line MUX output, and Line Out3is Line buffer3 output.

FIGS. 28 and 29 are two embodiments of a two-channel input interpolationblock, one that may perform same color sharpening subpixel rendering(SPR) and one that may perform cross-color sharpening SPR, respectively.In FIG. 29, red and green image data are provided to red SPR and greenSPR units together to perform the cross-color sharpening subpixelrendering.

FIG. 30 shows one embodiment of a two-channel input interpolation block.As may be seen in FIG. 30, five input pixels input data into twointerpolation units (i.e. multipliers and adder) and two outputs—VideoOutput A and B—are presented. As may be seen in one possible timingdiagram of FIG. 30, Video Output A outputs the native mode input datawhile Video Output B outputs the interpolated data

FIG. 32 shows yet another embodiment of a two-channel inputinterpolation block. As may be seen, the embodiment of FIG. 32 uses onlythree data latches, as opposed to five data latches used in FIG. 30.FIG. 33 shows a possible timing diagram of the block shown in FIG. 32.

While the invention has been described with reference to an exemplaryembodiment, it will be understood by those skilled in the art thatvarious changes may be made and equivalents may be substituted forelements thereof without departing from the scope of the invention. Inaddition, many modifications may be made to adapt a particular situationor material to the teachings without departing from the essential scopethereof. Therefore, it is intended that the invention not be limited tothe particular embodiment disclosed as the best mode contemplated forcarrying out this invention, but that the invention will include allembodiments falling within the scope of the appended claims.

1. An image processing system comprising: an input that receives aplurality of source image data, said plurality of source image datafurther comprising a plurality of source image data formats; circuitrythat resamples source image data from said source image data format to aplurality of target image data formats; a display that renders targetimage data wherein the resolution of the display comprises approximatelyone half resolution of the largest of said plurality of target imagedata formats; wherein said circuitry further comprises renderingcircuitry that performs subpixel rendering of said source image data. 2.The image processing system of claim 1 wherein said rendering circuitryfurther comprises: resampling circuitry that area resamples said sourceimage data.
 3. The image processing system of claim 1 wherein saidrendering circuitry further comprises: selection circuitry that selectsone of a plurality of filter kernels; and selection rendering circuitrythat performs subpixel rendering upon said source image data accordingto the selected filter kernel.
 4. An image processing system comprising:an input that receives a plurality of source image data, said pluralityof source image data further comprising a plurality of source image dataformats; circuitry that resamples source image data from said sourceimage data format to a plurality of target image data formats; a displaythat renders target image data wherein the resolution of the displaycomprises approximately one half resolution of the largest of saidplurality of target image data formats; detection circuitry that detectsthe resolution of the source image data; resampling circuitry thatresamples said source image data depending upon the detected resolutionof the source image data; and section circuitry that selects filterkernels for subpixel rendering said source image data.
 5. The imageprocessing system of claim 4, said resampling circuitry for performingresampling of source image data further comprising one of a group, saidgroup comprising circuitry for cubic interpolation, bicubicinterpolation, sync, and windowed sync functions.
 6. A method forrendering a target image data, the steps of said method comprising:inputting a plurality of source image data, said plurality of sourceimage data further comprising a plurality of source image data formats;resampling source image data from said source image data format to aplurality of target image data formats; rendering target image data ontoa display wherein the resolution of the display comprises approximatelyone half of resolution of the largest of said plurality of target imagedata formats; and wherein said step of resampling source image datafurther comprises performing subpixel rendering of said source imagedata.
 7. The method of claim 6 wherein said step of performing subpixelrendering of said source image data further comprises performing arearesampling of said source image data.
 8. The method of claim 6, whereinsaid step of performing subpixel rendering of said source image datafurther comprises: selecting one of a plurality of filter kernels;performing subpixel rendering upon said source image data according tothe selected filter kernel.
 9. A method for rendering a target imagedata, the steps of said method comprising: inputting a plurality ofsource image data, said plurality of source image data furthercomprising a plurality of source image data formats; resampling sourceimage data from said source image data format to a plurality of targetimage data formats; rendering target image data onto a display whereinthe resolution of the display comprises approximately one half ofresolution of the largest of said plurality of target image dataformats; detecting the resolution of the source image data; resamplingsaid source image data depending upon the detected resolution of thesource image data; and selecting filter kernels for subpixel renderingsaid source image data.
 10. An image processing system, comprising:means for inputting a plurality of source image data, said plurality ofsource image data further comprising a plurality of source image dataformats; means for resampling source image data from said source imagedata format to a plurality of target image data formats; means forrendering target image data onto a display wherein the resolution of thedisplay comprises approximately one half of resolution of the largest ofsaid plurality of target image data formats; and wherein said means forresampling source image data further comprises means for performingsubpixel rendering of said source image data.
 11. The image processingsystem of claim 10 wherein said means for performing subpixel renderingof said source image data further comprises performing area resamplingof said source image data.
 12. The image processing system of claim 10wherein said means for performing subpixel rendering of said sourceimage data further comprises: means for selecting one of a plurality offilter kernels; means for performing subpixel rendering upon said sourceimage data according to the selected filter kernel.
 13. An imageprocessing system, comprising: means for inputting a plurality of sourceimage data, said plurality of source image data further comprising aplurality of source image data formats; means for resampling sourceimage data from said source image data format to a plurality of targetimage data formats; means for rendering target image data onto a displaywherein the resolution of the display comprises approximately one halfof resolution of the largest of said plurality of target image dataformats; means for detecting the resolution of the source image data;means for resampling said source image data depending upon the detectedresolution of the source image data; and means for selecting filterkernels for subpixel rendering said source image data.